Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 101-minute session, Ven Robina Courtin explains and then leads her students through Lama Chopa (Guru Puja), a core tantric offering practice in the Gelug tradition. She opens with the foundational principle: seeing the guru as Buddha—which sounds simple but is profoundly difficult, requiring practitioners to maintain this vision even when the guru appears ordinary or harsh. She clarifies how tantra differs from sūtra teachings, explains what deity yoga means, and emphasizes why guru devotion is essential to realization. She then walks through the practice itself: setting up the merit field visualization, inviting wisdom beings, the seven limbs (prostrations, offerings, confession, rejoicing, requests to the guru, and dedication), and concluding with the tsog offering. Throughout she offers practical instruction on visualization technique, ritual meaning, and making offerings auspicious. For practitioners with tantric initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 09 E 2016 07 29.mp3
UUID: 039f3223-8c46-4c34-abde-5036983eb4dd
Teacher: Ven Robina Courtin
Collection: y Robina Courtin (Ven Robina Courtin)
Date: 2016-07-29
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 100.9 minutes
Words: ~11,688
Okay. Alright. Let’s all sit down. Alright. So you do it in Tibetan or English?
How do you do it, Judy? A mixture of but how do you write it? A mixture of both, okay. Does any all you people are familiar with what Lama Chopa is and why we do it and everything? Oh, you are?
You’ve had commentaries on it? No, I don’t. Well, do you know then? You haven’t had commentaries? Just nodding to be agreeable.
Yes. Then I can test you and ask you questions. Oh, sure. Oh, I see. She’s really very confident.
She knows all of she must be a dakini who has secret visions of the holy beings. I’m very honored to be next to her. So, okay, I just thought it might be appropriate, not inappropriate, just to speak for five minutes about it. Is that not inappropriate? Is that okay?
You don’t mind? Yes, I would love it. Thank you so much. Okay. Not that I know that much, but the little bit that I do know, the essence of why it’s important and what we’re sort of doing.
Let’s first of all just take refuge together. This little thing we’re doing together, how marvelous, how auspicious on this today’s a sob day, right? A special day of the calendar, is that correct? Or we just choose it because it’s Friday? Why are we doing it today, Judy?
Isn’t it? It is a tsog day, isn’t it? Me have a look. Twenty fifth. Okay, so today is a day — yeah, the day, this particular day, particularly related to the twenty fifth of the Tibetan month, is related to the Dakinis, and the tenth of the Tibetan month is more related to the male energy.
So this is a female energy today’s one, you know. So we just take refuge. We think we’re here together to do this very special, very auspicious, very marvelous of your practice so that we can put more seeds in our mind and nourish the seeds we’ve already planted so that we eventually become a Buddha just like our Gurus, so that we can be a benefit to sentient beings. Nothing less than this. Okay, so this is, as you all know, obviously, from tantra as opposed to sūtra.
So within tantra So okay all according to the Sūtra teachings, which is where we learn all about the Lamrim, about first level, we learn about karma, then we move into the next level of middle scope, we learn about the causes of suffering, the Four Noble Truths, then we go to the Bodhisattva’s path, learn all about bodhicitta, all this business. All of that’s the sūtra teachings of the Buddha, the sūtra teachings. And so the Buddha the way Buddha okay the very meaning of the word Buddha actually the word Buddha is actually referring to the pure enlightened consciousness, not a body. Actual Buddha doesn’t need a body. You know, actual Buddha, when we’re finally Buddha, we don’t need ridiculous bodies, know, these are just a bag of bones.
Actual Buddha, the actual word refers to the consciousness, the fully developed mind that pervades the universe and has infinite compassion and infinite wisdom, blah blah blah. That’s actual Buddha. Actual Buddha is that. But what good is that to beings like you and me? So this out of enormous compassion over eons of time practicing bodhicitta, this Buddha then manifests in bodies to help sentient beings.
So there’s two kinds of bodies basically. There’s one that regular guys like you and me see, which is you know which is what they call the Nirmānakāya. And we could say that Śākyamūni Buddha is one of those. And he’s also secondly, he’s also the type of body that is manifesting in the form of for the lowest and middle scope of teachings, for all the lowest sūtra teachings, for the Hirayana teachings. He represents the manifestation of completely controlled body, speech and mind, which is all that level of teachings.
That’s that level of teachings, and that’s Śākyamūni. Then you’ve got Buddha manifesting, another way to say, in the subtle light body, which depicted by all these pictures all over the place, millions of them, lady ones, gentleman ones, peaceful ones, wrathful ones, all kinds. They’re all just manifestations of the Buddha in a subtler form that the Buddha would manifest in, in subtle light bodies that only, you know, ārya bodhisattvas can cognize. Regular people can’t. And that’s so also these bodies are also from another way to say it, they’re all the bodhisattva aspect, which is from the Mahāyāna path, and that’s tantra.
Tantra. So there you’ve got the main Buddha is called Dorje Chang. In Sūtra the main Buddha is called Śākyamūni Buddha. In tantric aspect he’s called Dorje Chang or Vajradhāra. And he’s blue.
So that’s the main kind of Boss Buddha in tantra. I always remember asking Lama Yeshe when I first met the Dharma, and I used to do all the typing of the prayers, this name kept popping up, and I remember liking this name, Dorje Chang. And I said to Lama, Who’s Dorje Chang, Lama? He said and Lama had this wonderful way of just saying things so simply, you know. He said, oh, he’s the biggest Buddha.
And I was so happy, I like the biggest Buddha. Well, that’s the Buddha in tantra. And then if you have under him the five Buddha families, and under those five are all the hundreds of thousands of Buddhas. All those five Buddha families represent different psychological qualities, and then all the other hundreds of Buddhas, thousands of them, all are manifestations of different qualities. That’s essentially it’s basically psychology.
All of it’s just psychology. Certainly it’s not psychology we’re used to, but it’s essentially that. So now, okay, so that’s that. So now in tantra, the two they call they talk about deity yoga. Deity is the word in tantra is simply used synonymously for the word Buddha.
It’s exactly the same meaning. The deities. It’s just a word that’s common in tantra when you’re talking about the Buddha. Deities. So there’s two types of so one of the big deals in tantra, one of the major practices is called deity yoga.
Deity practice, deity yoga. Okay? And that means essentially having the Buddha in front of you representing certain qualities like Tārā. She represents power, action, success. You’ve got Chenrezig, he represents compassion.
You’ve got Mañjuśrī, he represents wisdom. They all represent something, you know, that we’re trying to cultivate. So okay, in tantra then, in this deity yoga, there’s two main ways to practice it. Two main ways. One is you visualize the deity Tārā, let’s say, Chenrezig, let’s say, and the reason to visualize them out there is to practice becoming it yourself, that’s all.
So sometimes so then the key thing in okay, the key thing in deity yoga the key thing in deity yoga, in tantra is when you see the Buddha, you visualize the Buddha, you think that’s my guru. And then when you think you’re guru, think that’s the Buddha. So you know, I don’t know if you guys have had teachings on guru devotion, I have no idea. As we know it’s in the Lamrim extensively and especially in Tantra it’s really emphasizes one of the key practices, one of the key ways to cultivate to get realizations, you know. So the two main kinds of deity yoga or guru deity yoga in Tantra.
One is you see the Buddha in the form of the Buddha and in your mind you think he or she is oneness with my guru. The other kind and this is not Lama Chopa is one of these the other kind is where you visualize the guru in his own form or her form, and then the Buddha is at you’re often at the heart and you think this is the Buddha. So in other words, guru deity yoga is seeing the guru as the Buddha. Sometimes you visualize the guru and you think it’s the Buddha, sometimes you visualize the Buddha and you think it’s the guru. The key one is to the essence of guru devotion, essence of this practice is to cultivate what they call the pure view, cultivate what is the hardest teaching of all.
It sounds kind of cute. Oh yeah, my guru is a Buddha. Yeah, out. But as soon as they look mean at you, as soon as they ignore you, you want to go and sue them, you know? Forget about all being the Buddha, we’re like ridiculous, because we believe in our ordinary view.
So it’s actually an intensely difficult teaching to comprehend and to really realize. So one of the key things in tantra is this one: Guru Deva Yoga. So this one, this particular one, which is a central practice in the Gelug tradition, you know, it’s Lama Chopa, offerings to the guru. Lama Chopa, offerings to the guru, you know? Sherpa is actually puja, so they’ve got it twice.
So Guru Puja is the Sanskrit, and Lama Chopa is the Tibetan, but they’ve obviously got the word puja at the end because we know that word. But that literally means offerings. Chopa means offerings, puja means offerings. So it’s offerings to the lama. So this front one is not the right picture, that’s the refuge mandala.
See, we’ve got a picture of the Lama Chopa mandala. Have we got a picture of the Lama Chopa mandala in here? No, we haven’t. Or maybe we have later. This is all extensive with lots of extra bits and pieces in it, in the early stages.
Oh, it’s not here. Oh, is, thank you. One hundred twenty nine. Oh, that’s just the line drawing. Okay, well that’s at least helpful.
So we haven’t got the actual picture yet. But never mind, there’s an outline showing all the different Buddhas. This is like guide to the Lama Chopa merit field. Although I haven’t got the picture of it. So all it is is all these, you know, all the different Buddhas and all the different Gurus.
So if you look in the central figure, you can see the shape of the pointy hat, can’t you? Can you see that? Okay, so this central figure is called Lama, Losang, Tubwang, Dorje Chang. Four people. It’s four people in one.
So the form you’re seeing is your Lama as lozang, that’s Tsongkhapa. So it’s in the form of Lama Tsongkhapa, but it’s your guru. So your guru might be some Tibetan lady. That’s okay, you visualize her as oneness in the form of Lama Tsongkhapa. That’s the first one on the outside.
That’s the outer one. Then the inner one then you have Lama Tsongkhapa and we see it when we do the visualization. He’s holding implements that indicate his oneness with Śākyamūni. That’s indicated by the word Tubwang. There’s five, sorry, Lama Losang Thubwang.
Oh yeah, lama is the lama, Tsongkhapa, our guru in oneness with. He’s holding certain implements that indicate he’s oneness with the Buddha, that’s indicated by Tubwang, one of the many words for the Buddha, Śākyamūni. And then Lama Losang, Tubwang, our Lama Tsongkhapa, Tubwang, Śākyamūni, and then at his heart the tantric aspect, Dorje Chang, in union with his consort. So it’s the same, one and the same. And the point about why we visualize our Guru instead of the form of the Buddha is because it’s our Guru, so it’s meant to be more personal.
You feel many times in many of the sadhana they have a small Guru Puja Guru Yoga practice and it’s always visualizing your Guru because it makes it more personal. And this is really interesting, you know. Lama Zopa, years ago, he commissioned an artist in Dharmasala to do a full size statue of Vajrasattva in union with his consort because there’s a Vajrasattva Gompa there. Since nineteen seventy one, Lama Yeshe always had us do a three month Vajrasattva retreat. So traditionally at Tuśita, every year since seventy-one, we’ve done a three month intensive Vajrasattva retreat.
Well, twenty years ago they built a Gompa, a Vajrasattva Gompa, and Lama Zopa had the artist make the picture, the statue, a life size statue of Vajrasattva, who’s a white aspect of vajradhara. vajradhara is Dorje Chang, just a Sanskrit word for Dorje Chang, the top, the biggest Buddha there. And he’s a white aspect, especially for purification. So Lama Zopa got the artist to do it in the likeness of Lama Yeshe. So when you see it, it’s quite shocking.
Because there’s this there’s the Buddha in union with his consort, and it’s Lama Yeshe, you know, Lama Yeshe’s face. He it’s quite, you know, quite shock. I think Tibetans were quite shocked by it. But this is Lama Zopa’s sincere wish to try and get us to really try to comprehend the deep meaning that the Buddha is the Guru, the Guru is the Buddha. They say this is the heart of all realizations, and especially practice like that in Tantra, in particular in Tantra.
And then all around are all the Buddhas and the different lineages all the way back to the Śākyamūni. On the left is the compassion one and the wisdom one and all below is all the blah blah blah and the protectors and all the rest, you know. If you’ve got perfect visualization you’d see all these perfectly, everyone. And also the Lamas will say when they talk about visualizing, you don’t have to see them as a picture. If you’ve really got good visualization, you see them all chatting away, talking to each other, all being friendly and like having a party, you know?
When you’ve got very good visualization, you can do that. So then, basically all this is, like most pujas, whether it’s a one page puja or a hundred pages, essentially there’s three aspects of every sadhana. One is the first part, which is the preliminary practices. That’s refuge, bodhicitta, etc, etc. So then the second part is the actual practice, and the third is what they call the conclusion: dedications and auspicious prayers and things.
And this is not unlike any other puja, it’s exactly that. So the first part is where we do bodhicitta, blah blah blah. Then we set up the visualization, this merit field. And then once you’ve done that okay, I’ll stop at each point and just mention, but the crucial thing when you set up your visualization, you imagine the visualization, it’s sort of you think of it as like pretend. It’s not real yet.
So what you’ve got to do is there’s always a part where you invite the wisdom beings to come. Light goes out, I’ll point it out, light goes out and hooks the actual Buddhas from all the entire universe, and they all come back and absorb into our visualization. And now you imagine it’s now become real. In fact when they make statues it’s exactly the same. You build a statue, it’s not Buddha yet, until you’ve done the special practices and prayers and you fill it with mantras and you do special puja and you’re inviting the Buddhas and coming and absorbing into it, and now it becomes an actual Buddha.
Just inviting the wisdom beings. All the pujas always have that. And then once you’ve done that, you then proceed to do the seven limbs. So all Lama Chopa is a series of the seven limb verses, many verses for prostrations, many verses for the next one, which is prostration making offerings, many especially those two. There’s many many verses for both of those.
And then there’s one verse each for the rest, for confession, rejoicing, requesting the Guru to stay, requesting the Guru teach, dedication. And then there’s a series requesting verses, and then you dedicate. But because we do it with sog, we insert tsog at that point. But essentially it’s the seven limbs, like all pujas. Okay?
And that’s where you create all the merit. You set up the visualization, and then you proceed to create you do prostrations and offerings and requests. That’s where all the so called merit is created. All these powerful thoughts are making offerings, prostrations and requests. Okay, Bloody do.
Any questions? Can you repeat all that? You’re just being funny. If you haven’t remembered it all I would have wouldn’t I? If you can’t repeat it back, can you repeat it all?
No, I’m afraid. If this were cooking class and you wanted a recipe, you’d have to write it down, wouldn’t you? You see, don’t think of it as cooking class, we just think of it as entertainment. Not quite, but you understand. We don’t remember any of it, that’s our problem.
Okay, not that I remember much at all. I remember a tiny percent. Okay, so let’s just proceed to do it. So the extra component, just to explain it, is when we do the preliminaries, it’s implied. So this is why okay, just to add extra.
See the picture on the front? That’s the refuge merit field, not the Lama Chopa merit field. And when we do the preliminaries, supposedly you’re supposed to visualize all of that. But if you don’t, you imagine Śākyamūni alone, that’s enough. When we do the preliminaries, we visualize just Śākyamūni.
So what page do we start? People? You’re not familiar with this? Where’s the starting page? Page ten.
No, can’t be, that’s all the business. Oh, it starts back there, doesn’t it? And then we have to leave all the torture alone. All right. So if we haven’t yet recognized who our guru is, and we don’t you know, we can have many, but if we don’t know who our root guru is yet, then if you know you just think whoever it is you respect, let’s say, His Holiness, or if you no longer are open to somebody, in general, just imagine them, you know?
And then if you do, you haven’t yet recognized your main Lama, kind of figure they’re sort of out there twiddling their thumbs, waiting for you to recognize them, you know? So imagine that your guru in human form, the Buddha in human form is there, but you’re not sure who it is, and you make aspirations when you’re doing this to recognize them. And don’t have any preconceptions about what a Guru is, you know. It’s just a word meaning teacher. It could be some quiet little lady down the back blocks, you don’t know that.
It could be His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he could be your Ruch Guru. It could be a monk, could be a nun, it could be a layperson, it could be a male or a female. Don’t have any preconceptions. Know? No idea, you don’t know.
But make aspirations to recognize your root lama. And by doing practices like this it nourishes the karma to do exactly that. Okay. This is done in different ways, and this is the way it’s done in a more personal way, starting with the verses here. Where’s verse two?
So the other stuff’s in place of two. So see the other one is in place of verse two, so never mind, we just take refuge. Okay, so we visualize, we just visualize. If we can visualize the entire merit field on the front cover, that’s great. If not, we can visualize Śākyamūni Buddha, whom we see as our Lama.
Again, if you don’t know who your Lama is, you imagine it’s Lama. Still, you imagine it’s your lama. Shaky, maybe put it in front of us. So we’ll just do three each, three of each, and the first three you visualize white light coming, purifying that particular one, and then three more you visualize yellow light coming, giving you the realizations of each one. And you imagine from Buddha these things coming.
Now, look at verse four. For the sake of all mother sentient beings, shall become a guru deity and place all sentient beings in the supreme state of a guru deity. For the sake of all mother sentient beings, I shall become a guru deity and place all sentient beings in the supreme state of a guru deity. For the sake of all mother sentient beings, I’ll become a guru deity and place all sentient beings in the supreme state of a guru deity. So now this special bodhicitta, this is particularly as a result related to tantra, where you’re saying you will quickly, quickly, in this very life, which is indicating tantra.
For the sake of all mother sentient beings, I shall quickly, quickly in this very life attain the state of a primordial Guru Yidam Buddha. I shall free all mother sentient beings from suffering and place them in the great bliss of Buddhahood. Therefore, I shall now practice the profound path of Guru Yidam Yoga. For the sake of all mother sentient beings, I shall quickly, quickly in this very life attain the state of a primordial Guru Yidam Buddha. I shall free all mother sentient beings from suffering and place them in the great bliss of Buddhahood.
Therefore I shall now practice the profound path of Guru Yidam Yoga. For the sake of all mother sentient beings, shall quickly, quickly in this very life attain the state of a primordial Guru Yidam Buddha. I shall free all mother sentient beings from suffering and place them in the great bliss of Buddhahood. Therefore I shall now practice the profound path of Guru Yidam Yoga. So now we imagine we imagine that Śākyamūni Buddha dissolves into light and comes to our crown.
Well, comes to our crown first, and then he dissolves into light, and then we imagine he merges with dissolves into light and melts into us and merges with the energy of our body, speech, and mind. So we think that the body, speech, and mind of the guru, and the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha, and my body, speech, and mind same thing. Just meditate for a moment on that. And so now if we received initiation into a practice and we have permission to see ourselves as a deity, then we now manifest as that deity. And if we don’t, then we just imagine Buddha at our heart.
From within great bliss I arise as a guru deity. From my clear body, masses of light rays radiate into the ten directions, blessing the whole world and its beings, all becomes perfectly arrayed with only infinitely pure qualities. Pure clouds of outer inner and secret offerings pervade the reaches of earth, sky earth space, earth, and sky, spreading out inconceivably. In essence, they are wisdom knowledge in aspects, inner offerings, and various offering objects. As enjoyment of the six senses, they function to generate the special wisdom knowledge of voidness and bliss.
So now having we’ve taken refuge, generated bodhicitta, and now we’re going to set up the actual visualization of the merit field, the visualization of the merit field. So we try and imagine as the words tell us. In the vast space of indivisible bliss and void, amidst billowing clouds of Samantabhādra offerings, at the crest of a wish granting tree adorned with leaves, flowers, and fruit, is a lion throne ablaze with the precious gems on which a lotus, sun, and full moon. There sits my root guru, kind in all three ways, in essence, all Buddhas. In aspect, a saffron robed monk, and with one face, two arms, and a radiant white smile.
His right hand in the gesture of expounding the Dhamma, left in meditative pose, holding an alms bowl full of nectar. You wear three lustrous saffron robes, and your head is crowned by a golden panted hat. In your heart sits all pervading lord vajradhara with a blue body, one face, two arms, holding vajra and bell embracing vajradhatu Ishvari. You delight in the play of simultaneous bliss and void, are adorned with jeweled ornaments of many designs and clothed in garments of heavenly silk. Radiant with countless light rays, adorned with the major and minor signs, you sit in the vajra position encircled by a five colored rainbow.
Your Skandas are the five Sugatas, your four elements are the four consorts. Your sense spheres, channels, sinews, and joints are actual bodhisattvas. Your hair pores are twenty-one thousand dharanis, your limbs, the wrathful protectors, the light rays directional guardians, lords of wealth and attendants, while all god worldly gods are cushions for your feet. Surrounding you in their respective orders sit the direct and lineage gurus, Yidams, hosts of mandala deities, Buddhas, bodhisattvas, heroes, and dakinis encircled by an ocean of Dharma protectors. The three vajras mark their three doors.
That means om at their brow, ah at their throat, and hum at their heart. And here is where we’re now going to invoke. All this is inviting the wisdom beings to come. So from those three places, from, hooked light rays radiate to invite the wisdom beings from their natural abode to inseparably abide. We’re imagining the light going out, and we do these verses, hooking the energy of all the actual Buddhas and all of it coming back and melting into this merit field.
Though all things are totally free of inherent coming and going, still you arise for your virtuous conduct of wisdom and loving compassion according to the dispositions of your very disciples. Holy refuge savior, please come forth with your retinues. Source of goodness and well-being throughout the three times, root and lineage, gurus, yidams, Three Jewels and refuge, heroes, dakinis, Dharma protectors, and hosts of guardians. By the power of your compassion, come forth and abide steadfast. Wisdom and commitment become non dual.
Commitment being is referring to our visualization. So now, having taken refuge, generated bodhicitta, set up a merit field, invited the wisdom beings, we can now proceed to create the merit of doing all the series of seven limbs. Starting on Page twenty seven. This next series of verses are the first of the seven limbs, which is the prostrations. We’re doing Tibetan here.
But even as you’re doing them, notice the The is that light body I mentioned, that the aria bodhisattvas can see. The is the regular body, know, the one like Śākyamūni. The is the actual enlightened mind. And then the Buddha as manifestation of Three Jewels, and the Buddha the next one too. There’s five verses here.
So the next ones, page thirty one, the next limb, the offerings, series of offerings here. First, we’re going to do the eight sense offerings, which are represented by the bowls on the altar. Then we’re going to do the five sense offerings. Then we’ll offer a mandala, and then we’ll offer a series of other, like you can see, offering of practice, the inner offering, secret offering, sattva offering, and offering of medicine and service, a whole series of the second limb offerings. So now we can do the do you do the long mandala here, you people?
Sounds like it? Okay. So if you don’t know Buddhist cosmology and are familiar with all these things that we’re visualizing, then really the best way to do is just imagine all the precious things in this world, because essentially what the mandala all a mandala is is a term for your abode. So here we’re imagining the mandala according to Buddhist cosmology, which is not how we see it, so imagine how we see it. That’s all.
All the things in it, the contents of this universe basically. We’re piling them all up and imagine offering these to the Merritt Field. So just visualize all the marvelous things as much as you can. All the beautiful jewels, all the precious handbags, all the shoes, all the clothing, all the delicious food, all the sounds, all the smell, all the objects of the universe essentially, and piling them up as big as space. Refuge savior’s treasures of compassion, eminent supreme met merit field with pure faith, I present to you a billion times over Mount Meru and the four continents, the seven precious royal emblems, the precious minor symbols, more.
Perfectly delightful environments and their beings, and a great treasure of all that gods and humans use or desire. By the merit of having offered this mandala to the merit field, may I and all sentient beings be able to meet the pure wisdom teachings of the victorious ones, which contain the biographies of those eminent ones who live in pure morality, have the brave attitude to follow extensively the bodhisattva’s conduct, and practice the yogas of the two stages, the essence of which is the transcendental wisdom of nondual bliss and voidness. May I and all sentient beings be able to meet this pure, complete teaching of Lama Tsongkhapa, the unification of Sūtra and Tantra, right this second. So now this next series of offering verses, we can sing in Tibet. But look at them, each one.
First the practice, then there’s inner, outer and secret, and then offerings of medicine and service. Is anybody here taking Bodhisattva vows? Yes. Tantric vows? No.
Okay. So we do the Bodhisattva prayer. And those of you who haven’t taken, just aspire so you can say the prayers if you like, but you’re not taking Bodhisattva vows, so you can aspire. And those of us who have, as Lama Zopa says here very nicely, the purpose of my life, we think this way, is to free all kinds of sentient beings from suffering and to lead them to enlightenment. To do this I must receive enlightenment.
Without the bodhisattva vows it’s not possible, so therefore I’m going to take the bodysattva vows for the benefit of all my kind and mother sentient beings. I go for refuge to the Three Jewels. I confess individually all my negativities. I rejoice in the merit of all migrating beings. I take on with my mind the perfect state of a Buddha.
I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Sangha assembly, and I do so to attain the enlightened mind. In order to fulfill the aims of myself and others, I shall develop a supreme enlightened motive and taught all dear beings my invited guests. I shall act with supreme enlightened conduct. May I become a Buddha to benefit all. I go for refuge of the Three Jewels.
I confess individually all my negativities. I rejoice in the merit of all migrating beings I take hold with my mind the perfect state of a Buddha I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Sangha assembly, and I do so to attain enlightened mind. In order to fulfill the aims of myself and others, I shall develop a supreme enlightened motive towards all dear beings, my invited guests, I shall act with supreme enlightened conduct. May I become a Buddha to benefit all. I go for refuge to the Three Jewels, I confess individually all my negativities, I rejoice in the merit of migrating beings, I take hold with my mind the perfect state of a Buddha, I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Sangha assembly, and I do so to attain an enlightened mind.
In order to fulfill the aims of myself and others, should develop a supreme enlightened motive, and towards all sentient beings, my invited guests, I shall act with supreme enlightened conduct. May I become a Buddha to benefit all? So now we think strongly that we have received the complete, pure set of bodhisattva vows. That is, those vows that were broken are now restored, and those that were kept have been increased. In fact, we’ve got bodhisattva vows, we should do that three times every day, to do exactly this, to renew and strengthen.
And so now we can do a little bit of purification practice so we can visualize Vajrasattva. Just imagine very clear simply above our crowns, Vajrasattva, who is vajradhara in a white aspect. He’s the big Buddha, the biggest Buddha in white, looking white, and above our crown. So we just now say a few mantras. So we imagine regretting completely any negativity we’ve ever done since the beginning of this time, in particular breaking our vows and including from past lives, as well as all negative actions we’ve ever done with our body and speech to harm sentient beings.
We regret all our delusions because we’re sick of suffering. We have infinite compassion. We must become a Buddha of sentient beings so we have compassion. We visualize the nectar filling us, as we say the mantra, and completely purify all this negative karma. And then we finish with a little aspiration to never not break our vows and not harm sentient beings again.
So imagine nectar coming just three times. So we just imagine this the the fourth the fourth opponent power is determination to change. So we make the strongest aspirations to not break our vows again, you know, and then to do the best we can to not is to not harm sentient beings. Don’t as long as nobody says, we don’t lie to ourselves, you know. But if we can certainly say, I will never kill again, I will never lie again, will never steal again, maybe we can’t say we won’t bad mouth our boyfriend again, you know, so we don’t lie to ourselves.
So maybe just for a little minute, you make decisions. Because this is the says this is the most powerful point. This is where we actually make changes, where we make the decision to change, resolve. So just for a few moments to yourself, make some decisions. Even if you say, I will not bad mouth my auntie for twenty four hours.
I will not get mad in the traffic for five hours. You know, certain things that are rubbish habits with our body and speech that we feel we want to start making changes. I will not overeat for one hour. Give yourself a timeline, it’s really powerful. This is where we make changes, we make a strong decision.
The habits of our body and speech, thinking like this, and our delusions if we wanna do those as well, make some decisions. So now imagine Lama Vajrasattva very delighted, dissolves his energy of body, speech, mind. The guru, the Buddha, emerges with our body, speech, and mind. Think like that. So now we do the rest of the seven limbs.
That heading there, seven limb practice, is a mistake because we’ve already done many of the seven limb prayers already, so it’s the continuing of the seven limbs. The remaining five verses. Before those having great compassion, I confess with regret and vow never to commit again whatever non virtues and evil actions I’ve done throughout the beginning of this time, caused others to do, or in which I have rejoiced. Though all things are like a dream lacking inherent existence, I sincerely rejoice in the bliss and joy of all Aria and ordinary beings and in every virtue that has ever arisen. So this here, Rinpoche wants us to meditate, he says, very strongly and extensively for some time.
So we’ll do like a minute. You know? And I think here what this means, you know, we think it just means delighting. You know? It just means delighting in good things.
That’s all it means. It’s kind of worrying because we always think about the negative. We never think about the positive. But delight in all the other let’s say, the holy beings. Delighting.
Amazing that there are enlightened beings. Amazing in this earth. All their extraordinary work. And then think delight in anybody practicing virtue. Unbelievable, actually.
And then think ourselves. We rarely do this. Think ourselves. The fact we’re even sitting here. We’re making an effort to be a person, a valid person, a moral person.
We’re making effort to be kind. We’re making effort to keep our vows. This is utterly stupendous. We should be in tears of joy, actually. We’ll just take it for granted, you know.
So we’d be so delighted we’re doing this, so happy we’re trying become better human beings. How amazing. So these last three, these two are said to be requesting. The requesting the requesting is a huge part of all the practice, you know. There’s prostrating, there’s offering, there’s requesting.
So they say the main cause of our, for example, bumping into the Buddhas in this life, bumping into our Gurus in this life is because we’ve made unbelievably intense heartfelt requests in the past. The main cause to get anything is to want it. This intention, you know. May I, may you, may so we’re requesting the Buddhas to never leave us in saṃsāra and the second one, you know, is to request them to teach. This is the cause of receiving actually.
It’s obvious. If you walk into the shop, you say, may I have a cup of coffee? Well, guess what? You’ll get one. You ask for it.
It’s sort of obvious. Asking for it is the right to get it, you know? It’s the same here. And the more request and beg the Buddhists to never leave us to always be around, continue that’s the cause of next life. We’re gonna, you know, hopefully get born in a Buddhist womb next life, not wait thirty years again, or fifty or whatever.
So strongly requesting. So the first one, we imagine offering a golden Dharma wheel, offering to the gurus, the whole merit field, as we said. And the second one, we visualize our offering a golden throne, adorned with a double vajra. Please let fall a rain, a profound profound and extensive dharma from a hundred thousand billowing clouds of perfect wisdom and compassion to nurture, sustain, or propagate a garden of Kunda flowers for the benefit and bliss of all you that this being. And as we can hear, we can also make a mandala offering instead.
You can do that as well. How marvelous. Though your vajra body is subject to neither birth nor death, but is a vessel of the mighty king unification, please abide forever according to our wisdom, not passing beyond sorrow until saṃsāra ends. I dedicate the massive white virtues thus created so that I may be inseparably cared for in all my lives by perfect and pure gurus who are kind in three ways and so attain the unified state of vajradhara. So do you know the matter often here?
Do you do? No answers. You do another one? Yes. The long one?
Yes. Yes, okay. Go back then, do a long one. I prostrate and go for refuge to the guru and the three precious gems. Please bless my mind.
I’m requesting you to immediately pass the viral the wrong conceptions from incorrect devotion to the guru up to the subtle dual view of the white, red, and dark visions that exist in my mind and in the minds of all sentient mothers, sentient beings. I’m requesting you to immediately generate all the right realizations from guru devotion up to enlightenment in my mind to the minds of all mother sentient beings. I’m requesting you to pacify all outer and inner obstacles to actualizing the entire greater path to enlightenment in my mind, to the minds of all mother sentient beings. I prostrate and go for refuge to the guru and the three precious gems. Please bless my mind.
I’m requesting you to immediately pacify all the wrong conceptions from incorrect aversion to the guru up to the subtle dual view of the white, red, and dark visions that exist in my mind and the minds of all mother sentient beings. I’m requesting you to immediately generate all the right realizations from guru devotion up to enlightenment in my mind and the minds of all mother sentient beings. I’m requesting you to pacify all outer and inner obstacles to actualizing the entire great greater path to enlightenment in my mind and the minds of all mother sentient beings. I prostrate and go for refuge to the guru and the three precious gems. Please bless my mind.
I’m requesting you to immediately pacify all the right the wrong conceptions from incorrect devotion to the guru up to the subtle dual view of the white, red, and dark visions that exist in my mind and the minds of all mother sentient beings. I’m requesting you to immediately generate all the right realizations from guru devotion up to enlightenment in my mind and the minds of all mother sentient beings. I’m requesting you to pacify all outer and inner obstacles to actualizing the entire graduated path to enlightenment in my mind and the minds of all mother sentient beings. And now page sixty-nine. So we’ve taken refuge and generated bodhicitta.
We then set up the merit field and invited the wisdom beings. We proceeded to do it. We’ve now just finished doing the seven limbs, many verses of prostrations, many verses of offerings, and the five verses, the five remaining ones, confessing, rejoicing, requesting, requesting, and dedicating. And then we made a mandala offering again, and now we’re going to do a series of requesting, requesting, begging, requesting. This is a crucial, amazing special practice, requesting the guru.
It doesn’t have the headings in here, which is a great mistake because in the later versions, which I think you must get, Judy, you need the later versions of Lama Chopa. They’re in your prayer book, surely. You don’t have the gold prayer book or something here, Judy? Because Lama Chopa is in there, isn’t it? We usually use the yellow books, Venerable Thubten like that, but we haven’t got enough, so that’s why we’ve got I see.
Because that’s got all the headings. It’s so good to see the outline. Each of these is one of the requesting to different aspects of the guru, so we just have to say it with faith. Source of virtue, great ocean of moral discipline, treasury beaming with jewels of much hearing, master, second Buddha clad in saffron, elder, Vinaya holder, I make request to you. You have the ten qualities suitable for one to teach the path of those gone to bliss.
Lord of Dharma, representing all conquerors, Mahāyāna Guru, I make request to you. You are wise, patient, honest, without pretense or guile. Your three doors well subdued. You have both sets of ten qualities, no tantra and rituals, and are skilled in drawing and explaining. Foremost, vajra holder, I make request to you, to those untamed by countless past Buddhas, the unruly migrators of this degenerate age who are difficult to subdue.
You show unmistakenly the good way to those gone to bliss. Compassionate refuge, savior, I make request to you. At this time, when the sunlight teachings of the sage is setting, you enact the deeds of a conqueror for the many beings who lack a protector refuge. Compassionate refuge, savior, I make request to you. Even one of your hair pores is for us a field of merit more highly praised than all the conquerors of three times and ten directions.
Directions. Compassionate, refuge, savior, I make request to you. Adorned with the sugatas three bodies, you manifest from an alluring net of skillful means in ordinary form to lead all beings. Compassionate, refuge, savior, I make request to you. Your aggregates, elements, sense, bases, and limbs are in nature the sugatas and consorts of the five families, bodhisattvas and wrathful protectors.
Supreme guru, essence of the Three Jewels, I make request to you. Arising from the play of omniscient, pristine awareness, you are the essence of ten million mandala cycles, pervading lord of a hundred Buddha families, foremost, vajra holder, savior of primordial unification. I make request to you, unobscured, inseparable from the play of simultaneous bliss, pervading everyone, everything in motion and at rest, the nature of all things, free from beginning or end. Samantabhādra, actual, ultimate bodhicitta, I make request to you. So this one is called this one is a special request.
I remember when received a commentary on Lama Chopa from Ribur Rinpoche years ago in America, he said when we recite this verse, this special request, we should visualize ourselves kneeling on the ground at the hem at the feet of the guru, holding the hem of his robe, begging him. They were his words. So we’ll sing three times. First time, in Tibetan, then we can do the You are my gurus. You are my yidams.
You are the Dakinis and Dharma protectors. From now until enlightenment, I shall seek no other refuge than you. In this life, the Bardo and all future lives, hold me with your hook of compassion. Free me from saṃsāra and nirvana’s fears. Grant all attainments.
Be my constant friend and guard me from interferences. You are my gurus. You are my yidams. You are the Dakinis and Dharma protectors. From now until enlightenment, I shall seek no other refuge than you.
In this life, the Bardo and all future lives, hold me with your hook of compassion, free me from saṃsāra and nirvana’s fears, grant all attainments, be my constant friend, and guard me from interferences. You are my gurus. You are my yidams. You are the Dakinis and Dharma protectors. From now until enlightenment, I shall seek no other refuge than you.
In this life, the Bardo and all future lives, hold me with your hook of compassion. Free me from saṃsāra and nirvana’s fears. Grant all attainment to be my constant friend and guard me from interferences. So this is now what they call taking the four initiations. So you do the words exactly as it says.
And this is very, very Bennett, very, very auspicious. By the force of having thus requested three times nectar and light rays, white, red, and dark blue, stream from the places of my guru’s body, speech, and mind, and dissolve into my own three places, one by one and altogether. The four obstacles are purged, the four impure imprints are purified, and seeds of the four kayas are received, a replica of the guru happily dissolved into me, and I’m blessed with inspiration. So we just do some of these mantras. The first one, just do three times.
There’s a new one on the left, it says. It’s been changed from it’s been changed. Yeah. So what we’re seeing here is in each of these cases, these name mantras of the gurus, you have, Omaguru vajradhara at the beginning, and at the end, Omaguru vajradhara, That’s his name in the middle there, that means patience. The teachings of the Buddha, patience.
That’s what that is. And then at the end, the And then through the merits of these virtuous actions, may I quickly attain the state of a Guru buddha and lead all living beings without exception to that enlightened state. So now we can do a short lama we can do a short where we got can we have the prayer books, Judy? We got prayer books? I wanna do a short Lamrim prayer.
Can we get the Foundation Organ Quality somewhere? Is it in our little books here? No. It’s not here? We do the just anywhere we will get the Foundation of Good Qualities.
We can share. What page is it on? One hundred thirty one hundred thirty nine. Okay. Thank you.
Very kind. Thanks so much. Lazy version, we do just short prayer. Me being lazy, not you. I’m sure you want to do long prayers for hours.
Okay? The foundation of all good qualities is the kind and perfect guru, pure guru. Correct devotion to him is the root of the path. By clearly seeing this and applying great effort, please bless me to rely upon him with great respect. Understanding that the precious freedom of this rebirth is found only once is gratefully me greatly meaningful and is difficult to find again.
Please bless me to generate the mind that unceasingly day and night takes its exist essence. This life is an impermanent as a water bubble. Remember how quickly it decays and death comes. After death, just like a shadow follows the body, the results of black and white karma follow. Finding firm and definite conviction in this, please bless me always to be careful to abandon even the slightest negativities and accomplish all virtuous deeds.
Seeking samsaric pleasures is the door to all suffering that uncertain and cannot be relied upon. Recognizing these shortcomings, please bless me to generate the strong wish for the bliss of liberation. Led by this pure thought, mindfulness, alertness, and great caution arise. The root of the teachings is keeping the Prātimokṣa vows. Please bless me to accomplish this essential practice.
Just as I have fallen into the sea of saṃsāra, so have all mother migratory beings. Please bless me to see this train as supreme bodhicitta and bear the responsibility of freeing migratory beings. Even if I develop only bodhicitta, but I don’t practice the three types of morality, I will not achieve enlightenment with clear recognition of this. Please bless me to practice the bodhisattva vows with great energy. Once I have pacified distractions to wrong objects and correctly analyze the meaning of reality, please bless me to generate quickly within my mind stream the unified path of calm abiding and special insight.
Having become a pure vessel by training in the general path, please bless me to enter the holy gateway of the fortunate ones, the supreme vajra vehicle. By that time, the basis of accomplishing the two attainments is keeping pure vows and samaya. As I have become firmly convinced of this, please bless me to protect those vows and pledges like my life, Then having realized the importance of the two stages, the essence of the vajrayana, by practicing with great energy, never giving up the four sessions, please bless me to realize the teachings of the holy guru. Like that, may the gurus who show the noble path and the spiritual friends who practice that have long lives, please bless me to pacify completely all outer and inner hindrances in all my lives never separated from perfect gurus. May I enjoy the magnificent Dharma by completing the qualities of stages and paths.
May I quickly attain the state of vajradhara. Okay. It’s now big enough for itself. Hundred and seven. Which one?
Hundred and seven. Thank you very much. Okey doke. So we’re going to bless all these offerings here. The thing is, it’s meant to be offering to the dakinis, and I always wonder whether dakinis like bananas and oranges.
They seem too gross to me, frankly. Mean, I think dakinis like sugar and light and sweet and delicious, you know, but we’re so organic and boring in our thinking. They like sugar, you know? I mean, offering bananas, I think, is not very I don’t know. It’s my opinion.
I buy marshmallows and sugar and light things, you know, all airy. And you should have mountains of offerings. I remember with Zong Rinpoche one time, Zong Rinpoche. He insisted our offering. He was so rude to all of us.
Was unbelievable. He said, call those offerings? He says, we have mountains of offerings. So it’s really auspicious when you do the offerings. You see, they’re all flat, aren’t they?
You see? It’s auspicious to build them all up, make them like mountains, like pile the dishes on top of each other. And also I think because, you know, you’re supposed to be polite to the dakinis. You give them packets. They’ve to open their own packet.
It’s very rude. You should be offering the raw stuff, you know? So the packet should be opened. I think it’s true. Because you’re meant to be you know, they should be open.
That’s what I’ve heard. Makes sense. You’re offering the actual not the package. You’re offering the plastic, you know, the paper. So you should be offering the actual things.
Yeah. But, I mean, equally, the bananas and the oranges too. What to do, though? But I never buy bananas and oranges for dakinis, that’s your business. Buy sweet things.
This is my personal opinion based on a few things I’ve picked up and heard. It’s not meant to be coming from the sutras or anywhere. Think of the meaning of it, you know, that’s the idea. Especially think of tantra. The meaning is meant to be bliss generate bliss, you know, light and sweet and airy.
Okay. So we offer. We bless first. Pure clouds of outer, inner, and secret offerings, the fields of vision pervade the reaches of space, earth, and sky spreading out inconceivably. In essence, our wisdom, knowledge, and aspect, inner offerings, and various offering as enjoyments of the six essays they function to generate the special wisdom knowledge of bliss and voidness.
In the grand play of wisdom knowledge, all realms of vajra fields, and all structures majestic vajra palaces, oceans of clouds and some Matabhata offerings blaze forth. All desired wealth is endowed with glory. All beings are actual viras and virinis. There’s not even the word impurity or flaw. All is infinitely pure.
Within dharm hum, within dharmakai, all mental fabrication stilled above a turbulent wind and blazing fire, a tripod of three human heads, ah, within a pure and proper human skullcap, all with such each substance brilliantly shines above them, oh, ma, oh. Each sparkles with brilliant color. Wind moves, fire blazes, substances melt and boil, vapor rises up from the three letters, hosts of light rays radiate out in the ten directions, drawing back the three vajras and nectar, which dissolve into the respective letters. They melt into nectar and blend with the essences, purified, transformed, and increased. It becomes an ocean gleaming with everything delightful.
Compassionate natured, rooted lineage gurus, with assembly of yidams and deities, Three Jewels of refuge, viras and dakinis, hosts of protectors and guardians, I request you to come to this offering site. Amidst an ocean of clouds of outer inner and secret offerings of a beautiful throne made of jewels, firmly placed your radiant feet, supreme sitter, and grant me every desired attainment. Oh, blessed by Samādhi, mantra, and mudra, this offering of offering feast of uncontaminated oh, do you ever do you okay. Sing well, listen to better. Oh, no.
Sing English better. We offer to please you, host of root and lineage gurus, contented by enjoying an abundance of everything desirable. Please let fall a great rain of blessings. Not this next one. Let’s go to the next page.
Ho blessed by Samādhi, Mantra, and Mudra, this ocean of offering, feast of uncontaminated nectar, we offer to please you, hosts of Yidam deities, your retinues, contented by enjoying an abundance of everything desirable in Maha. Ho, please let fall a great rain of attainments. Ho, blessed by Samādhi, Mantra, and Mudra, this ocean of offering feast of uncontaminated nectar, we offer to please you, hosts of precious jewels of refuge, contented by enjoying an abundance of everything desirable in Maha Ho, please let fall a great rain of holy Dharma. Ho, blessed by Samādhi, Mantra, and Mudra, this ocean of offering feast of uncontaminated nectar. We offer to please you host of Dakinis and Dharma protectors, Ho, our home, contented by enjoying an abundance of everything desirable.
Emma Ho, please let fall a great rain of enlightened activities. Ho, blessed by Samādhi, Mantra, and Mudra, this ocean of offering feast of uncontaminated nectar. We offer to please you, host of mother sentient beings, Omahou, contented by enjoying an abundance of everything desirable. M Mahou, please dispel the suffering arising from deceptive appearances. Two more times.
So we will chant it one in Tibetan this time. So who who what are you what are you doing here? What are you doing here? Cleaning. And you’re gonna offer where?
To whom? The boat. Sorry. I’ve lost some voice. And where are gonna offer?
The boat. The gurud. To the gurud. Good. Yes.
Perfect. Okay. That’s great. Okay. Good.
Take your time. Okay. Okay. Okay. And try maybe above maybe it’s really good to put it right up high.
Okay. So we imagine the guru is actually here. I mean, these are pictures because we’re you see, we’re completely not we’re so stupid we cannot see. The fact is Buddha’s mind pervades the universe. It can’t not.
So if we had clairvoyance, we would see the Buddhas are all here. So we just have to imagine the truth. The Buddhas are here. The guru are here. The gurus are here.
So we’re offering this to them. Page one one three. The bottom. You know that you know the you sing it? You know it?
Yes. Okay. Now imagine, the precious master replies, oh, I visualize myself as a Guriyidam in nature, inseparable from the three vajras. Ah, this uncontaminated wisdom nectar, whom without moving from bodhicitta I enjoy to satisfy the deities within my body. Omah Sukha.
Okay. Alright. So do you stop for a tea break? You offer people everybody a cup of tea or something? I would I could we could add some apple juice now.
You don’t make tea for people? No. You make apple juice? Yeah. Probably quicker, isn’t it?
That’s why you do it probably. So mean. You should make this beautiful pot of delicious chai. The Tibetans do that. For four thousand people, they go over their pots.
We’re lazy. We’ll just buy bottle of apple juice. Come on. Excuse me. This is my opinion.
Do you understand? This is meant to be listen. Judy. Judy is the person who’s representing the director, it seems to me, which means representing love as Zopa, which means Judy, on behalf of Buddha House has offered, has invited us to a party. Okay?
I know it’s bring your own in the West, but it’s a party that Buddha House is offering. That means you should make the most beautiful offerings, the most beautiful cup of tea to make people be blissfully happy. That’s how we should be thinking. Judy, who’s the SBC, should be thinking like that. So get people in your brand new kitchen, your brand new center, they have good chai recipes, make magnificent, delicious, milky, sweet, perfect chai, we stop and have a party.
That’s the plan, you know? Just my opinion based on what I’ve heard over the years. Alright. We’ll see you then. Oh, sorry.
That’s okay. Anybody else? No, there was nobody with tantric vows, they offered to anybody else. Stop, just wait a minute. I asked her who had tantric vows and nobody answered.
What? You have? Well you didn’t answer, that’s what should have done. Never mind, now I know, forgive me. You’re not being rude.
Well I am being rude, it’s normal. Okay, excuse me. I’m sorry. Good. There’s our apple juice.
We’re gonna to the tsog offering first, and then we can have our apple juice and our delicious sog. Page one hundred twenty four. Okay. You’re gonna offer everything? Relax, enjoy, eat and have our party now.
Bless our drinks, bless everything. Bless our drinks, our delicious nectar. With song, one of the things is with tantra, they say, with song, you’re not supposed to see it as ordinary. And now we shouldn’t even call it food. It’s not food.
Don’t think of it as food. If you notice the llamas, when you offer them, they just taste one small amount and leave the rest. We eat it like food, we’re like animals, you know? It’s unbelievably heavy. Lama Yeshe told my friend Owen Cole in Perth that it’s better to drink molten iron than to eat tsog with attachment.
So then, for me it’s a no brainer, just don’t eat it, you know? You have a taste and that’s it. Who can eat who cannot eat with attachment? I mean, do you understand? So try and be aware of that and try not to discriminate.
You’re supposed to discriminate. It’s all meant to be the nature of bliss. So you shouldn’t try and discriminate, but what we do naturally, we can’t help it. We go to this and the chip and the that, you know? So try not to do that, at least that much.
Because it’s not food, this is not like food. It’s hard to hear this. We’re so degenerate, you know? So just taste a bit. That’s it.
They’re done. Done. They’re the animals that have died. And these are the people of the healing prayers. Okay.
So we pray for those who’ve died. No. Error. People killed in Orlando and all the ladies. Drago Novosel, Alexis Pappic, Albert Gibson, Gracie Troppano, people killed in Baghdad, Phyllis Thompson, NTC Oddsson, Mana Koczakowski, Vizky, people killed in Nice, Kay Dos, then Tukten Kunzan, Conor the Rottweiler, Phoebe the cat, and Leo the Dachshund, and Tilly the Dachshund, Janine Stokes and Donna Luna Ross and Venn K Minor and Imam Tawidi, Elizabeth Watson, June James, Bev Smith, Jackie Barta, Kaz Rice, Mark Gilbert, Rolf and Margaret Mayer, Jampa Tens.
Can we please pick up the tsog off the floor? Immediately, can you please pick up the tsog off the floor? Susie, Rebecca, Annalys, Lynn, Yuet, Venn, Jamyang, Karen Williams, Laura Williams, Carol Williams, Williams, Carol Williams, and Joey and Beverly, and Barbara and Cheryl Atherton family, and Norma Hawke, and Hannah Wakefield, and Luanna Nelson, Dave Nelson, Michelle Nelson, Adam Kingston, Beverly and Su somebody Sujan. I can’t read these words, I’m so sorry. Cynthia and David and Susan and Ron Simms and Jeff Wagner and Gerald O’Callaghan and Joan O’Callaghan, Lynn Simms and Scott Simms and Mick Simms and Shirley and Lee Simms and Esha Gaurav, somebody Prince Smith and Amy somebody, and Michelle Torrington, Martin Goodman and Roman Anderson, Shelley McLean, Gabriel Smith and Alison and Laura and, don’t know, somebody Finter and Philip Jacobs.
Animals, more animals, more animals. Orlando the cat and Dougie the dog and Candy the dog and Bailey the dog and Choco the dog and dzo the dog and Tinker the dog. So now we can offer the leftovers to all the local beings around so they don’t feel jealous and upset and harm us. They’ve got to feel that they’re part of the party as well, otherwise they get very offended, the local dudes. Page one hundred nineteen.
Om Ah Hum, impure appearances are purified in emptiness. Ah, the sublime nectar achieved with wisdom. Om Ah Hum becomes the vast ocean of all desired things. Om Ah hum Om Ah hum Om Ah hum Om Ah hum, blessed by Samādhi, Mantra, and Mudu, this ocean of remaining feast of uncontaminated nectar, we offer to please you host of earthbound royal practice, Emma Ho, contented by enjoying abundance of everything desirable. Emma Ho, may enlightened activities continually be properly accomplished. Ho, remaining guests.
Oh, not done So sorry. I’m so sorry. Okay. Oh, okay. And all the oh, yeah.
And the reason we put the incense is so that all the beings can see it, because it’s dark, they have to see it. That’ll help them see it. Okay, so we’re up to seventy eight: All remaining guests and your retinues accept this glorious ocean of remaining solvent and precious guests, present as you wish, be satisfied and proper, and especially the yogis all gain health, long life, and power, glory, fame, good fortune, full attainment of every desirable thing. Bestow on our success in activities such as gratification, increase, and so on. Oathbound protectors protect the fruits of your prior accomplishments.
Eliminate untimely death, sickness, demons, and experience fears that there be no bad dreams, or omens, or calamities. Let by the force of this bountiful giving, may I become a self-arisen Buddha for the sake of beings, and by my generosity, may I liberate the multitude of beings not liberated by previous Buddhas. And so now, where is he? K. So why don’t we go now to this verse?
We’ll go to page ninety seven. And then we’ll do the last verse of which is the last verse of the Lamrim, but it’s the verse where we dissolve the merit field into us. So see the LC115? So we visualize now, as we say this, we visualize all the merit field dissolving, all of them dissolving top and bottom and sides, all into the central figure. Dissolves top and bottom into Dorje Chang, and Dorje Chang’s consort dissolves into him, and then he dissolves and he comes to our he comes and enters our crown, and when we imagine the merit field of body, speech, mind merges with our body, speech, and mind.
If you have high Yoga Tantra, you know how to visualize properly. Having thus been entreated, supreme gurus pray grant this request so that you may bless us happily a light on the crown of my head, and once again set your radiant feet firmly at the corolla of my lotus heart. And now we do one time on this sweet one time this mantra one time. Whatever the white virtues I have thus created, I dedicate as causes, enabling me to uphold the holy Dharma of scriptures and insights, and to fulfill without exception the prayers and deeds of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the true times. By the force by the force of this merit, may I never be parted in all my lives.
From Mahāyāna’s four wheels, may I reach the end of my journey along the paths of renunciation, bodhicitta, pure view, and the two stages. To the excellence of whatever white virtues there are in saṃsāra nirvana, may all be auspicious for me to be free here and now from all misfortune and hardship, and thus to enjoy a glorious and perfect celestial treasure of temple and ultimate virtue and goodness. May all be auspicious for all the Buddha’s teachings to endure long through your centers of Dharma, omniscient Losang Drakpa, being filled with hosts of renunciates, yogis, and yogis, striving single-pointedly to mastery through to attainment. Having requested your blessings, Lozang Drakpa, who from the time of your youth made request to the supreme guru deity, may all be auspicious, Losang Drakpa spontaneously fulfill the wishes of others. Hang on just a second.
Just a moment. Okay. May it always be auspicious for all my Dharma to swell like a lake in the summer rains, bringing unbroken flow of rebirth of leisure in faultless families, so that I may pass my days and nights with your holy Dharma. May Lozang thus delight, and the glory of perfection. And now we sing it to Ben.
You do all these other prayers, Judy? Yes. Yes. May the precious body mind not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline, but increase forevermore.
Just as the brave Mañjuśrī and Samantabhādra too realize things as they are, I also dedicate all these merits in the best way that I may follow their perfect example. I dedicate all these roots of virtue, but the dedication praises the best by the victorious ones of the three times, so that I might perform the noble bodhisattva’s deeds. Due to the merits accumulated during the three times of myself and all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, which are empty from their own side. May the eye is empty from its own side. Achieve the state of enlightenment, which is empty from its own side.
Lead all sentient beings who are empty from their own side, to that stage as quickly as possible by myself alone. Merits, of the three times created by myself and others and by the Buddhism Bodhisattvas, may I, my family members, all the students and benefactors of the organization and all sentient beings be able to meet the perfectly qualified Mahāyāna virtuous friends in all our future lives. From our side, may we always see them as enlightened and always perform only actions most pleasing to their holy minds. Okay. So they do the long life prayers for our holy lamas.
That little booklet. Page that’s holiness. Page thirteen. Savior of the snow land teachings and transmigration beings who makes extremely clear the path that is unification of emptiness and compassion. To the lotus holder, Tenzin Gyatso, I beseech, may all your holy wishes be spontaneously fulfilled.
You who uphold the subdue as moral way, who serve as the bounty bearer of all, sustaining, preserving, spreading, Mañjuśrī’s victorious doctrine, who masterfully accomplish magnificent prayers honoring the Three Jewels, savior of myself and others, your disciples, please, please live long. Lord of Dharma, who in accordance with the various dispositions of those to be subdued, makes clear in the light of your well spoken advice, the sacred Ganden tradition, essence of Buddha’s teachings, are foremost in holy Lama. To you who are supreme, oh Lama, please, please, live long. And any of our own Lama, other Lama’s, may they live long, live, live long. We need them all so badly on this earth.
And we finish with Miksema. Okay. That’s it. Done. Is that everything?
That’s all this business. What’s done? We did it. Okay. Good night.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.